Pope's new Twitter account @Pontifex is now active

Benedict XVI will start tweeting on 12 December, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe

Alessandro SpecialeRome

Eight languages and almost 30 thousand followers in the space of a few hours: @Pontifex, the Pope’s official account on microblogging and instantaneous messaging social network Twitter was activated this morning by the Vatican’s communications office.

The Pope will send his first tweet, live, during the General Audience on 12 December, the feast day of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The Secretariat of State’s communications advisor, Greg Burke, said this was just a lucky “coincidence”.

The Pope should have no trouble respecting the 140 character limit for each tweet. In his message for this year’s Word Communications Day, he spoke about the essentiality of brief messages, often no longer than a biblical verse. In order to express one’s deepest thoughts, one needs to cultivate one’s inner self.”

This does not mean the Pope will be using Twitter every day to communicate with faithful and it is unlikely he will be following others on the social network. His tweets will initially be sent on Wednesdays mainly, during the Pope’s weekly General Audiences: his micro-messages will be “pearls of wisdom” that will encapsulate the meaning of his catecheses, the head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Mgr. Carlo Maria Celli, said. In the future however, papal tweets “could be sent more frequently,” a Vatican statement read. Most importantly, “all tweets will be the Pope’s own words,” the Secretariat of State’s communications advisor, Greg Burke stressed.” No one will be putting words in his mouth.” But the Vatican Secretariat of State staff will actually be doing the typing and sending the tweets.

The launch of this new papal Twitter account also marks the victory of the English language, the language of international communication and internet, not so much over Latin – which remains the Holy See’s official language and which the Pope recently tried to revive through the creation of the Pontifical Academy for Latin - but over Italian, the Roman Curia’s main working language. Benedict XVI’s main Twitter account @Pontifex, is in English and the Italian account is @Pontifex_it. Accounts are also due to be launched in Spanish, Portuguese, German, Polish, Arabic and French and possibly in other languages over the next few months.

“The Pope’s account on Twitter is a concrete expression of his belief that the Church needs to have an online presence,” a Vatican statement issued on the occasion of the account’s launch read. “The Pope wants to use a tool that is important in today’s communications world,” Mgr. Celli added. The Pope, who is not considered to be very media oriented, wanted to do this to reach men and women of today, wherever they are.” According to Greg Burke, Twitter “is an important part of the idea market and the Church wants to be part of that” even if the Pope does not start commenting on news stories he considers inaccurate.

The Vatican’s digital revolution does not end with the launch of the Pope’s account on Twitter which has over 500 million users. Mgr. Celli said an app for smart phones dedicated to the Pope would be out soon. “The Pope” app for iPhones and iPads will be presented to Apple for approval next week, Gustavo Entrala from Spanish communications agency 101 explained. The app should be available for free on the Apple Store online by the end of the year. A version for Android phones is being prepared as well.

The app will make it possible for users to keep track of the Pope’s speeches and homilies and see what is going in the Holy See and Castel Gandolfo in real time thanks to a series of webcams. Users will also receive notifications on the Pope’s activities and the Vatican’s information services, Vatican Radio (which already has apps for iPhones and Android phones) and news.va will be integrated into the app.

Celli also announced that a series of e-books for the Year of Faith is being prepared: “We have asked Bishops’ Conferences to send us written documents and video and audio content on this year’s celebrations, he explained.” “One volume will be on the Pope’s written works and others on the activities of the Catholic Church across the five continents.”